Field
The present disclosure relates to the manufacture of molding elements for vulcanizing and molding tires, and more particularly to the manufacture of molding elements obtained by the selective melting of a powder.
Description of Related Art
It is known practice to create a molding element using a method of selective melting, more commonly referred to as sintering. This method uses a beam of energy to melt a powder. A “beam of energy” means electromagnetic radiation (for example a laser beam) or a beam of particles (for example an electron beam).
A sintering method using a laser, hereinafter referred to as a laser sintering method, is known from document EP1641580. In that document, a first layer of powder is spread on a support plate by a layering member. All or some of the particles of powder of this first layer of powder are then agglomerated by the laser beam according to the shape of the object that is to be obtained. Once this step has been performed, a second layer of powder is spread on the first layer of powder so that it in turn can be selectively melted using the laser. By repeating these operations of spreading a layer and fusing using a laser, a sintered object is built up layer by layer.
Document WO2010072960 discloses a method for manufacturing a molding element using sintering. The molding element thus comprises a bar, denoted 24 in that document, and fins 26. In that method, secondary elements are produced at the same time as this molding element. The secondary elements notably comprise support parts 36 and joining parts denoted 28. The support parts have a thickness corresponding substantially to the thickness of the molding element and the joining parts have a smaller thickness than these support parts so that they can form break lines facilitating the detachment of the molding element from the support plate. Now, the manufacture of the secondary elements is expensive because it entails melting a large quantity of powder. Furthermore, the use of these secondary elements is limited because they are scrapped once the molding element has been detached from the support plate.
There is therefore still a need to optimize the use of the secondary elements when creating a molding element using sintering, so as to make the manufacture of such elements less expensive.